PacNW - Day 1

Since we covered over 2,000 miles and saw quite a few sites along the way I've decided to break out trip up in to different blog posts for each day.

So here is about what happened day one...

Woke up around 3 am, Sandy picked us up 4 am, airport by 4:30.

Get checked in, exit row (nice). We sit next to a dude, named Tony, who has just spent the last week in Fargo at a National Wrestling tournament coaching some high school boys. His voice shows he has been yelling each day. He's surprised by our whimsically planned trip, where we just plan to see how far we can go and how much we can see. So he draws us a map with high lights we must see in Washington and Oregon. Tony literally spent about 2 hours drawing the map, reading through out tour book and talking to us about where we needed to go. Here is the map he drew us:

Once the plane landed we gathered our luggage and headed off to get the rental car. We had reserved what was to be an 'intermediate' car. Evidently an intermediate car is a crappy Chevy Cobalt with over 42k in miles, no power windows, no power locks, no cruise.

But we took the car, checked it out and put our GPS up with Anacortes, WA as our destination. We got out on the open road to discover the the car once on the freeways shakes so bad the dome light and the steering wheel shook. FUN! Ok, I'll stop complaining about the car....

We arrived Anacortes around 11 am, plenty of time for the 11:55 ferry to the San Juan Islands - Friday Harbor.

Once at Friday harbor we grabbed some food at Friday's crab house and enjoyed our first taste of Dungeness crab in the PacNW. Once we finally had some food in us we finally crashed and were so tired we found a nice spot next to the water were we could catch a few zzzzz....

After we had our little nap in the park, we were off on our Whale Watching tour.

One the cruise we saw a few Orcas:

We also saw quite a few seals:

And we also saw what I like to refer to as the phantom Cruise ship:

Overall it was a great first day, it did however run a little long. Our ferry back wasn't until 10 pm and it didn't arrive back on the mainland until 12:30. Needless to say we sleep the 2.5 hours on the ferry and then when we got back to our car we slept there too :).

Old house on the hill...

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Originally uploaded by brian and kate

Growing up I always wondering about the old house on the hill at the end of town. I'm not exactly sure how old I was when I learned that it was the house my mom grew up in but I do remember how much I wanted to go into that house when I was in sixth grade. There was just something it which made me want to go into it.

Until recently I had no idea that my cousin owned the place and conveniently the most recent renters had just moved out after tearing up the place. So needless to say it was not in tip top condition. Despite it's condition I finally was able to walk through the childhood home of my mom. Which it seems all my siblings have some memory of visiting. In a strangely sad and confusing way it seems as though I discover more about my mom each year. It's interesting the depth of individuals we never fully comprehend until we take a start looking.

Laying Sod

After we took out the buckthorn last year there remained a few open areas where we could do 'something'.

Being crazy I decided we should clean up the area and lay some sod. So we borrowed Brian's grandpa's tiller. Which is an amazing machine. It however whooped me. I've really only tilled areas that have PREVIOUSLY been tilled. So they've been pretty nice, easy tills. This however was full of roots, rocks and obstacles. So to put it frankly it was not fun.

Then to make matters even more interesting it started to rain. Determined to finish the entire project that day I still connect our trailer to our littler corolla (rolla) and headed off to get sod. I picked up 40 square feet of sod hauled it back - carried one by one down the hill and laid it out. After laying the first 40 I went back for another 20 - despite having an overwhelming feeling to do it another day. But I got the sod and got it all laid. Here are the before and after pictures:

Lathe

Brian has a new hobby! No longer is he just a 'gamer' he now can spin :) And by spin I mean turn.

In late winter Brian found a lathe on Craigslist which we bought for him. It sat in our basement until Spring came at which point he set it up and started turning wood. These are a sampling of the first 3 pends which he made.

The top is a pencil made for me. The middle a cherry pen for his grandpa. The third an acrylic with coffee beans for his mom.

Life Under the Sea

For a few weeks now we have been enjoy the life under the sea quite a bit more. Which consequently has causes us to abandon all technology unrelated to aquariums. Yes, we finally broke down and got a saltwater aquarium or to be more correct a reef aquarium. Which means not only do we have saltwater fish, we have live rock and live corals. Seriously, WHO knew you could grow corals in your own home? I thought gardening was cool, now I get to grow corals!

After much talk about what was the absolute 'best' place in our house to put an aquarium we landed upon this lonely corner of our home.


And quickly, sad when to glad! Check this out, the pictures show up much better at night, so here is a night shot.


And here is a shot during the day. This was the day after we moved the tank in. So prior to us getting some new lights. But still very awesome.


Below are a few of our fish, they are a bit active and love riding the flow so getting a good shot can be difficult.

Meter Bratwurst Challenge!

For my birthday this year I thought German food was a good idea...

So we headed to North East Minneapolis and enjoy ourselves at Gasthof Zur Gemutlichkeit.

Brian and James ended trying out the meter bratwurst challenge. With no doubt in mind both of them finished and went on to sample the Bavarian platter Jeanne and I split.

At the beginning:

Within a few bites of the finish:

James tackling his bratwurst:

All finished:

Geek the Gecko

A lot and nothing at all has been going on the last few weeks.

To start, I'll mention Brian's new lizard, Geek the Gecko. For Brian's birthday this year we ended up getting him a gecko, so far so good with the little dude. He's already shed his skin a few times and has likely doubled in size. Here is one of the best pictures we've got of the Geek.